ONC 2018 Report Recommends Shared Access to Clinical Data

In ONC's 2018 Update on the Adoption of a Nationwide System for the Electronic Use and Exchange of Health Information, the group responsible for leading national health IT efforts outlines its recommendations for future actions the Department of Health and Human Services will support through its policies. All of the recommendations focus on data sharing to better understand clinical data while providing access to patients, increasing transparency and promoting efficiency. The overarching recommendations are as follows:

• Focus on improving interoperability and upgrading technical capabilities of health IT, so patients can securely access, aggregate, and move their health information using their smartphones (or other devices) and health care providers can easily send, receive, and analyze patient data.
• Increase transparency in data sharing practices and strengthen technical capabilities of health IT so payers can access population-level clinical data to promote economic transparency and operational efficiency to lower the cost of care and administrative costs.
• Prioritize improving health IT and reducing documentation burden, time inefficiencies, and hassle for health care providers, so they can focus on their patients rather than their computers.